smith



(No Model.)

D. L. SMITH.

BUGKLE.

No. 477,024. Patented June 14, 1892.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

DWIGHT L. SMITH, OF WVATERBURY, CONN EOTICUT, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO EARL A. SMITH, OF SAME PLACE.

BUCKLE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 477,024, dated June 14, 1892.

Application filed February 8, 1892. Serial No. 420,702. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.- Fig. i. The guard or tongue for the hook is Be 1t known that I, DWIGHT L. SMITH, of made from wire doubled at its center to form WVaterbury, in the county of New Haven and the tongue I. The two branches are carried State of Connecticut, have invented a new upward, preferably spread, and the two ends 5 Improvement in Buckles, (Case 13;) and I do of the wire turned to the right and left, as at 55 hereby declare the following, when taken in J J, Fig. 5, into line with each other. The connection with accompanying drawings and length of these thus-turned branchesJ .l corthe letters of reference marked thereon, to be responds to the space H in the frame, and so a full, clear, and exact description of the same, that when placed between the ends, as seen and which said drawings constitute part of in broken lines, Fig. 6, they substantially 60 this specification, and represent, incomplete the upper side of the frame. Then Figure 1, a front view of the buckle comthe upper side is inelosed by a sheet-metal plete; Fig. 2, a rear view of the same; Fig. 3, sleeve K, which unites the guard to the frame, a vertical section of the same; Fig. 4, a top but yet leaves the guard with a certain 15 View; Fig. 5,a front view of the guard deamount of freedom to swing. The guard I 6 tached; Fig. 6, the frame detached; Fig. 7, a extends down on the front of the frame and front View of a modified form of buckle; Fig. so as to stand forward of the recess F in the 8, a vertical section showing a modification. hook, and its lower end is turned backward This invention relates to an improvement slightly, so as to produce a rounded surface in that class of suspender-buckles in which L at its lower end (see Fig. 3) within and so 70 the frame is made from wire having a deas to substantially cross the mouth of the pending hook from the lower side, to which hook. As a means for clamping the suspenthe suspender-ends may be attached, and in der, a longitudinal bar N is arranged across which a guard is provided to prevent the acthe frame at the bends or near the upper cidental escape of the loop or ring of the susside and secured to the two ends of the 75 ponder-ends from the hook, and having eomframe. This bar is made from wire, and on bined therewith aclampingdeviceasa means this bar a sheet-metal L-shaped lever M is for securing the suspender in the frame; and hung, so as to swing as upon a pivot. One the invention consists in the construction as leg of the L-shaped lever projects forward as hereinafter described, and particularly rea jaw to impinge upon the suspender, while So cited in the claims. the other leg extends downward to serve as a The frame is made from wire and composed handle and so that the lever may swing as of two sidesAB, with ends O C. On the lower from the closed position seen in Fig. 3 to the side B the wire is bent downward at the cenopen position seen in broken lines, same figter into U shape, the lower end turned upure. The suspender is introduced at the rear 85 ward to form the depending hook D, to which of the upper side of the frame downward bethe suspender-ends may be attached; but intween the jaw of the lever and the upper side stead of bringing the two branches E E of the of the frame, and when the proper position is body of the hook together theyare separated, attained the lever is turned to grasp the susso as to leave a space F between them. (See pender against the said upper side of the 90 Figs. 1 and 5.) frame, as seen in Fig. 3, the suspender or strap The two ends of the wire frame are turned being represented in broken lines. The susinward to the right and left, as seen at G G, pender is returned through the frame below Fig. 5, to form a portion of the upper side; the lever and the body of the guard lies upon but they are less in length than the upper the surface of the suspender, which yieldingly 5 side, so as to leave a space H between the holds the guard in the outward position, so two ends. The upper side of the frame is as to close the mouth of the hook, as seen in thrown forward out of the plane of the frame Fig. 3,but so that the guard will readily yield by making a forward bend in the end 0 of for the introduction or removal of the loop or the frame, as at a, Fig. 3, and as also seen in eye of the suspender-ends. roo

By curving the lower end of the tongue rearward and downward it presents an inclined surface to the ring, so that the ring may be removed by simply lifting it upward and against the tongue, such pressure serving to depress the tongue for the escape of the ring.

Instead of turning the ends of the guardpiece outward, as represented in Fig. 5, they may be turned inward, as represented in Fig. 7, and united in the same manner.

The rearward and downward bend of the tongue or guard is not essential to the invention, as it may be left substantially straight, as represented in broken lines, Fig. 3. The form of the spread of the guard-piece is immaterial, as will be seen by the two illustrations given, in which this form is varied to a considerable extent, and this for the reason that the amount of surface which the guard presents to the suspender is immaterial, the guard having no other function than to simply form a tongue for the hook to operate like the tongue of a snap-hook.

Instead of spreading the two branches of the hook so far apart as to permit the tongue to swing between, which it is necessary to do in case of the curve at the lower end of the tongue, they may be nearer together, as represented in Fig. 6, and the tongue of corresponding-width, so that the tongue cannot pass between the two branches.

While preferring to construct the frame with the bends in the ends of the frame near the upper side so as to throw the upper side forward out of the plane of the frame, as I have described, in order that the jaw of the lever may grasp the suspender or strap without producing a short bend in the suspender, the bend may be omitted, as seen in Fig. 8; but in this case it will be desirable to arrange the bar in aposition farther to the rear of the upper side of the frame than when that side is thrown forward, and as seen in Fig. 8.

Iclaim' 1. A buckle composed of a frame made from wire, the wire bent to form the lower side B, with its depending hook projecting therefrom, the two ends 0 G and the ends of the wire turned inward to form parts G Gof the upper side A, but so as to leave aspaee between the said two parts G G, combined with a guard, also made from wire, doubled to form the hook-tongue I, the two branches of the wire forming the guard extending upward and turned horizontally and so as to stand in the space between the two ends of the wire on the upper side of the frame, a sleeve around the said inwardly-projectiug ends of the frame and the projecting ends of the guard, the bar N, longitudinally across the frame, secured to the two ends of the frame near and parallel to the upper side of the frame, and a metal lever hung upon said bar, the upper edge of the lever turned forward and adapted to engage the suspender between the upper side of the frame and the edge of the jaw, substantially as described.

2. A buckle consisting of a frame made from wire, the ends of the framebent forward so as to bring the upper side of the frameinto a plane forward of the plane of the frame, a cross-bar longitudinally across the frame, secured to the two ends of the frame substantially at the said bends, and a sheet-metal lever hung upon said cross-bar, the upper edge of the lever turned forward and adapted to engage the suspender between the upper side of the frame and the edge of the jaw, substantially as described.

3. A buckle consisting of a frame made from wire bent to form the lower side I3, with a depending hook therefrom, the two ends 0 O, the ends of the wire turned inward to form portions G G of the upper side, but so as to leave a space If between the said turned-in ends, the ends 0 C of the frame bent near the upper side and so as to bring the said turned-in ends G into a plane forward of the plane of the frame, a guard made from wire doubled to form a tongue for the hook and extending upward, the two ends of the wire turned horizontally, corresponding to and so as to stand in the space H between the two ends G G of the frame, a sleeve K around the said turned-- in ends G G and the horizontal portions of the guard, a cross-bar N, attached to the two ends of the frame near the upper side and parallel therewith, and a sheet-metal lever hung upon the said bar, its upper edge turned forward and adapted to grasp the suspender be tween the upper side of the frame and the edge of the jaw, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

DWIGHT L. SMITH. \Vitn esses:

H. L. DAwsoN, G. E. MINTIE. 

